Lawmakers to Tour ‘Alligator Alcatraz’

By The News Service of Florida

State lawmakers and members of Congress will be able to visit a controversial immigrant-detention center in the Everglades on Saturday, after some Democratic legislators last week were denied access to inspect the facility.

The Florida Division of Emergency Management on Wednesday sent an email inviting “congressional and state legislators” to tour the detention center, which state officials hurriedly erected as part of an effort to help President Donald Trump’s deportation of undocumented immigrants. An email from the division said the tour is restricted to “Florida’s state legislators and members of Congress.”

The detention center, dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” by Gov. Ron DeSantis and other state officials, reportedly can house up to 3,000 detainees and is located at the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport, a remote site used for flight training.

Lawmakers seeking to tour the facility have until noon Friday to respond to the invitation. State Rep. Anna Eskamani, D-Orlando, was among a group of Democratic state legislators who tried to tour the facility on July 3 but were not allowed inside.

“We’re glad to see public pressure forcing the state of Florida to open its doors for a scheduled tour of the Everglades detention center. But let’s be clear: this isn’t a field trip — it’s oversight. The law grants us the right to enter these facilities unannounced, at any time. A scheduled 90-minute tour is not a substitute for lawful access and long-term legislative accountability,” Eskamani said in a statement Wednesday.

Democratic U.S. House members Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Lois Frankel, Darren Soto, Maxwell Frost and Jared Moskowitz said they already were planning “an unannounced oversight visit” to the facility on Saturday. “We do not need permission to conduct lawful oversight. This sanitized tour is not real oversight,” the Democrats said in a statement Wednesday. The group pointed to “reports of horrific living conditions, rampant denial of due process, the risk of death and destruction from a hurricane, plus irreversible damage to the Everglades and tribal lands.”

But the Democrats said they intend to participate in the tour to inspect the facility and speak with detainees and security workers.

Republicans have touted the facility, with state Attorney General James Uthmeier, in a social-media post this week, calling it a “one-stop-shop deportation center.” The Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity have filed a federal lawsuit to try to halt the facility. The groups contend it threatens sensitive wetlands and environmentally protected species in the Everglades and the surrounding Big Cypress National Preserve.